Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

Next he married bright Themis who bore the Horae （Hours）, and Eunomia （Order）, Dikë （Justice）, and blooming Eirene （Peace）, who mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae （Fates） to whom wise Zeus gave the greatest honor,
[905]
Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have.
And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bore him three fair-cheeked Charites （Graces）, Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia,
[910]
from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows.
Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bore white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
[915]
And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine gold-crowned Muses were born who delight in feasts and the pleasures of song.
And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis,
[920]
and bore Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia.
But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia,1
[925]
the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But Hera without union with Zeus—for she was very angry and quarrelled with her mate—bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.
[929a]
But Hera was very angry and quarrelled with her mate. And because of this strife she bore without union with Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of Heaven in crafts.
[929e]
But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera . . . deceiving Metis （Thought） although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt:
[929j]
therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athena: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus,
[929o]
even Metis, Athena's mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess （Athena） received that2whereby she excelled in strength all the deathless less ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the host-scaring weapon of Athena.
[929t]
And with it （Zeus） gave her birth, arrayed in arms of war.
[930]
And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an awful god.
Also Cytherea bore to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and Fear,
[935]
terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns; and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.

1 I.e.Athena, who was born “on the banks of the river Trito” （cp. l. 929l）.

2 Sc.the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it disagrees with 929q and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.

Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Theogony. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.

The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from
Amazon.com

An XML version of this text is available for download,
with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted
changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.